Dry Tortugas National Park Schedules 2026

Dry Tortugas National Park sits about 70 miles — 113 kilometres — west of Key West. No road reaches it. The National Park Service is explicit: the only ways in are by boat or by seaplane, and both land you at Garden Key.

One boat out, one boat back, and that is the day

Key West to Fort Jefferson departs at 08:00 and takes 150 minutes. Fort Jefferson back to Key West leaves at 15:00, the same two and a half hours. That is the entire scheduled service: out in the morning, back in the afternoon, roughly four and a half hours ashore.

The schedule is the visit

Because there is one sailing each way, the ferry does not merely take you to the park — it defines how long the park lasts. You cannot extend the day, and you cannot arrive later. Anyone planning to snorkel, walk Fort Jefferson and eat lunch is fitting all of it into a fixed window that starts at 10:30 and ends at 15:00.

Missing the return is a serious problem

On most routes in this data a missed boat costs you hours. Here it costs you a night on a remote island with no accommodation, no shops and limited fresh water, seventy miles from the nearest town. The 15:00 departure is not a convenience; it is the last one, and the park has no alternative transport.

Entrance fees are separate from the crossing

The park charges entrance fees for visitors aged 16 and over, including those arriving by private boat. A ferry ticket and park admission are not automatically the same transaction, and arriving on your own vessel does not exempt you.

Two and a half hours each way is open water

This is a crossing of the Gulf, not a sheltered channel. Sea conditions cancel sailings, and when they do there is no second boat later in the day to absorb the disruption. Build a spare day into any itinerary that depends on reaching the Tortugas.